A Garden Journal—There's an App for That!

Lisa, a longstanding member of the Apartment Therapy community, has been keeping a record of her gardening efforts. I wanted to share her pictures (above) and her successful and approachable method. She uses her iPhone and photo filters (and great observation) to journal her little Brooklyn garden.

"Okay, really it's just a few heirloom tomato plants in a few bulk olive containers..." says Lisa, quite humbly. Over time, though, she has snapped away at each new discovery and built up a small collection of observations from her plants, some she keeps on Flickr, others on Facebook. She mainly uses these photo filters:

The photos have become a journal through the good (seedlings, fresh figs, ripening tomatoes) and the bad (tomato blossom end rot). And the tweaks to the photos bring personal expression to her documentation.

Mistakes and problems will always be part of a gardening experience, so it is nice to see Lisa treating these areas with the same care and interest as the successes. Tomato blossom end rot somehow looks misty and fascinating in her photos, an image to contemplate and also to learn from.

Recently she forwarded the pictures on to friends using Facebook and received advice there on what may be the cause. Next year she'll not only have the images, but also the comments to remind her of what happened as she plans her next growing season.

Journals are so important for gardeners to remember all their hard-earned lessons and to plan for the future. Even a simple account can be incredibly useful from one year to the next. If you are someone who has always wanted to keep a visual journal but never felt confident with ink, watercolor or other traditional methods, you may find Lisa's and other similar digital methods very quick and rewarding.